Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest

contribution, whether for the ministry, the poor or the heathens, God does not want your poor, stingy
offering, for He has millions of ravens ready to fly on missions of love and mercy.
9. “Let divine love be free from hypocrisy.” In regeneration the Holy Ghost pours this divine love
out into your heart (Ch. 5:5). In sanctification the last and least vestige of hypocrisy is eradicated and
utterly destroyed, so that your divine love is then free from hypocrisy. “Abhorring that which is evil,
cleaving unto that which is good.” You are not simply to turn away from everything that is wrong,
but actually abhor it in the depth of your soul. You are not simply to pursue everything good, but to
cling to it with the pertinacity of a drowning man.
10. “In brotherly love be kindly affectionate toward one another, in honor preferring one
another.” This is a positive commandment of God that we are not only to be kind toward one
another in brotherly love, but delight to honor one another, oblivious to our own honor. Timee,
“honor,” also means financial remuneration. Hence, we see that forgetting all about our honor and
recompense we are to simply look after others, trusting God so far as ourselves are concerned.
11. “Not slothful in business.” We are all working for the Lord. Therefore we have not a minute
to lose, as the end is nigh and judgment hastens, and we need all of our time and opportunities to
finish our work and be ready to give our account. “Boiling over in spirit,” i.e., not simply hot, but
actually boiling over and scalding all the devils round about till they are glad to stampede. “Serving
the Lord.” The word translated “serving” here is the participle form of doulos, “a slave.” Hence it
means a perfectly submissive servitude, such as the slave, who has no will of his own, renders to the
will of his master. Therefore our will is to be utterly lost in the will of God.
12. “Rejoicing in hope.” The vivid, brilliant and triumphant anticipations of heaven and glory,
speedily entered and sweeping on forever, should constantly inspire us with a hopeful buoyancy,
riding victoriously over every corroding care and lugubrious difficulty. “Being patient in
tribulation.” This word is from the Latin tribulum, a “flail,” setting forth the work of the devil to
beat us over head and back with his cruel cudgel. “Continuing constant in prayer.” Though we can
not always be in the meditation of prayer, yet we can incessantly be in the spirit of prayer, which is
an impregnable fortification against all the assaults of the enemy.
13. “Ministering to the necessities of the saints, pursuing hospitality.” While we are to make glad
the hearts of the saints by our Christian philanthropy, a special emphasis here is laid on hospitality,
which we are not simply to practice, but actually to run after. It is sad to see this beautiful and
amiable grace so rapidly evanescing from the church. When an old idolater called at Abraham’s tent
at nightfall, and pursuant to patriarchal hospitality received a kindly welcome, and having enjoyed
the evening repast, on his refusal to join in family prayer, was ejected by the patriarch, to abide his
destiny in the darkness and the storm of an oriental desert, and God immediately, speaking from
heaven said, “Abraham, I have borne with that old sinner a hundred years; can you not stand him one
night?” Immediately Abraham rushes out into the storm, calling aloud, “Come back! come back!”
So the old idolater, rendering his tent, said, “What sort of a man art thou, having cast me out, now
calleth me back?” Then says Abraham, “Because my God rebuked me, saying that He has borne with
you a hundred years, though a hard old sinner, and that He thinks I ought to stand you one night.”
“Then,” says the old man, “if that is the sort of God that you worship, I want you to tell me all about